Former Judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay's Key Verdicts On Bengal School Recruitment and Civic Bodies Scam
Abhijit Gangopadhyay on Tuesday resigned as judge of Calcutta high court and announced his decision to join the BJP on March 7. He joined the Calcutta High Court as an additional judge in 2018 and was made a permanent judge in 2020. Over the past two years, Abhijit Gangopadhyay has ordered key verdicts, especially in matters of alleged irregularities in the job recruitment process by the West Bengal education department as well as in the recruitment of a large number of civic bodies across West Bengal.
In June 2022, Abhijit Gangopadhyay directed a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the alleged West Bengal teacher recruitment scam in May 2022. The case was in connection with the alleged irregularities committed in the recruitment of Group-C and D staff as well as teachers by West Bengal officials between 2014 and 2021.The West Bengal School Service Commission and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education made the appointments. As per the allegations, after failing the selection tests, appointees have paid bribes close to Rs 15 lakh in order grab the jobs. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) looked into the monetary allegations involved in the case and arrested then West Bengal minister and TMC leader Partha Chatterjee.
In June 2022, Calcutta High Court ordered the removal of TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya from the post of West Bengal Board of Primary Education. Judge Gangopadhyay ordered his removal by citing alleged irregularities committed by TMC MLA in the recruitment of 269 teachers in primary schools. Later, the ED arrested TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya for his alleged connection in the West Bengal education scam, following Partha Chatterjee.
In January, 2023: Expressing displeasure at the CBI investigation on the West Bengal education scam, Judge removed investigation officer Somnath Biswas from the special investigation team (SIT).
In April, 2023: Judge directs a CBI investigation in the West Bengal civic body recruitment scam. The Supreme Court has also upheld the Calcutta High Court order in the matter and stated that the municipality recruitment scam seems to be linked to the West Bengal education scam scam which is also under the probe of both CBI and ED.
In April, 2023: The Calcutta High Court ordered CBI and ED to question TMC leader and chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee in connection with the multi-crore education scam case.
In January, 2024: This year Calcutta High Court witnessed the conflict between Justice Gangopadhyay and Justices Soumen Sen following contradictory judgements on the same matter. The issue unfolded when the single bench of justice Gangopadhyay initiated a CBI inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the admission of MBBS candidates in medical colleges and hospitals in West Bengal. But, the division bench of the Calcutta high court, stayed the single bench”s order for the CBI investigation when the West Bengal government approached them. Following this, Justice Gangopadhyay passed another order stating that the division bench’s stay order should be ignored, which was then stayed by the division bench again. Justice Gangopadhyay has accused Justice Sen of being guided by the interests of a political party. However, the Supreme Court stayed all proceedings in the Calcutta High Court relating to the matter and transferred them to itself.
